Lawmakers attack VA's 'culture' of bonuses

Saturday

Jun 21, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 21, 2014 at 10:50 AM

WASHINGTON - An "outlandish bonus culture" pervades the Department of Veterans Affairs, where no senior manager received less than a fully satisfactory performance review last year, the chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee said at a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday.

WASHINGTON — An “outlandish bonus culture” pervades the Department of Veterans Affairs, where no senior manager received less than a fully satisfactory performance review last year, the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee said at a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday.

The VA paid out more than $2.8 million in “performance awards” in the most-recent fiscal year to executives, some of whom now are under scrutiny for misrepresenting veterans’ wait times for health care.

“This is scandalous, even criminal,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the committee chairman. The “ quest for monetary gain” led to manipulation of records to conceal long waits, he said.

Congressional negotiators are considering banning VA bonuses through fiscal 2016 as they work to reconcile differences in House and Senate bills that would, among other things, allow veterans facing long waits at VA facilities to see private doctors and expand the VA secretary’s authority to fire employees for poor performance.

The VA’s acting secretary, Sloan Gibson, has moved to suspend bonuses to VA health-care executives this year.

Throughout the VA, nearly $400 million was paid in bonuses in fiscal 2011.

Fueling congressional outrage was a since-rescinded $8,495 bonus for fiscal 2013 to the director of the Phoenix VA, which has been at the epicenter of the VA health-care scandal.

In addition to long waits for patient care, the VA has been criticized for cost overruns on construction projects.